24-06-2009, 09:08 PM
According to a 1966 syndicated story by Ken McKenna in the Herald Tribune Service:
The short version of his rise to riches is found at http://www.earnshaw.com/shanghai-ed-indi...rtune2.htm
in "Tales of old Shanghai - Library - Fortune magazine Jan 1935":
Cornelius V. Starr is probably the most dedicated skiing businessman. A man of scattered interests, he built his fortune in China as owner of the Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury, was deported in 1940 and returned to expand his wealth through insurance investments.
He began skiing at 47 and was attracted to the Stowe-
Mount Mainsfield area of Vermont by its dependable winter
conditions. Over the years, he financed construction of ski lifts, gradually boosted his investment past $2 million, acquired the majority interest in a Mt. Mansfield hotel, the mountain highway, an elaborate inn and 3,000 acres of mountainside.
But his enchantment with skiing stops short of bad business procedures. He once told a friend: "I've never put more into Mt. Mansfield than I can afford to lose."
He began skiing at 47 and was attracted to the Stowe-
Mount Mainsfield area of Vermont by its dependable winter
conditions. Over the years, he financed construction of ski lifts, gradually boosted his investment past $2 million, acquired the majority interest in a Mt. Mansfield hotel, the mountain highway, an elaborate inn and 3,000 acres of mountainside.
But his enchantment with skiing stops short of bad business procedures. He once told a friend: "I've never put more into Mt. Mansfield than I can afford to lose."
The short version of his rise to riches is found at http://www.earnshaw.com/shanghai-ed-indi...rtune2.htm
in "Tales of old Shanghai - Library - Fortune magazine Jan 1935":
Born in Fort Bragg, California, switched to insurance, joined the Army, caught the wanderlust,
got a job with Pacific Mail S. S. Co., arrived in shanghai in 1919 as stenographer with 300 Japanese yen in his pocket. Destiny led him to the office of Frank Jay Raven and with Mr. Raven he founded American Asiatic Underwriters Federal, Inc. U. S. A. Which prospered
mightily....
He is forever on the go-Shanghai to New York, New York to London, London to Singapore. He goes with, and in quest of, ideas, talks insurance everywhere, spreads his interests out through Asia, has just purchased the United States Life Insurance Co. in the U. S. (assets, $6,000,000). In his rare periods of quiescence he lives with a maiden aunt on the eighth floor of the North-China Building, 17 the Bund, where Asia Life and American Asiatic are also housed. He belongs to the usual Shanghai clubs, dines out, drinks sherry flips solemnly in
corners of hilarious night clubs. He is not really social. And he has never married.
Starr's good and powerful friend in Shanghai is Frank Jay Raven, and the team of Starr and Raven has surged along with rare interruptions since 1919. Likewise a Californian, Mr. Raven came to Shanghai in 1904, when the foreign settlement was predominantly British. He got a job as engineer from the Shanghai Municipal Council. but was soon lured from his profession by the irresistible economic logic of Shanghai real estate. Starting with assets of $4,000, he had made enough by 1914 to found the Raven Trust Co., on which he proceeded to superimpose what Shanghai calls "the Raven interests" - chiefly the American-Oriental Finance Corp., the American-Oriental Banking Corp., and the Asia Realty Co.--a total of some $70,000,000 in assets. Such was the structure, at least partially built, into which young C. V. Starr stepped in 1919, with the purpose of adding an insurance empire thereto.
got a job with Pacific Mail S. S. Co., arrived in shanghai in 1919 as stenographer with 300 Japanese yen in his pocket. Destiny led him to the office of Frank Jay Raven and with Mr. Raven he founded American Asiatic Underwriters Federal, Inc. U. S. A. Which prospered
mightily....
He is forever on the go-Shanghai to New York, New York to London, London to Singapore. He goes with, and in quest of, ideas, talks insurance everywhere, spreads his interests out through Asia, has just purchased the United States Life Insurance Co. in the U. S. (assets, $6,000,000). In his rare periods of quiescence he lives with a maiden aunt on the eighth floor of the North-China Building, 17 the Bund, where Asia Life and American Asiatic are also housed. He belongs to the usual Shanghai clubs, dines out, drinks sherry flips solemnly in
corners of hilarious night clubs. He is not really social. And he has never married.
Starr's good and powerful friend in Shanghai is Frank Jay Raven, and the team of Starr and Raven has surged along with rare interruptions since 1919. Likewise a Californian, Mr. Raven came to Shanghai in 1904, when the foreign settlement was predominantly British. He got a job as engineer from the Shanghai Municipal Council. but was soon lured from his profession by the irresistible economic logic of Shanghai real estate. Starting with assets of $4,000, he had made enough by 1914 to found the Raven Trust Co., on which he proceeded to superimpose what Shanghai calls "the Raven interests" - chiefly the American-Oriental Finance Corp., the American-Oriental Banking Corp., and the Asia Realty Co.--a total of some $70,000,000 in assets. Such was the structure, at least partially built, into which young C. V. Starr stepped in 1919, with the purpose of adding an insurance empire thereto.
"History records that the Money Changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance." --James Madison